A Harvard affiliated doctor argues that the solution to obese kids is for the government to take custody of these “at risk children” but only in extreme cases. Dr. David Ludwig explains that state intervention “ideally will support not just the child but the whole family, with the goal of reuniting child and family as soon as possible.” He told The Associated Press that removing kids from their parents’ home is not the only thing states should do. Ludwig says that to change conditions in the home “may require instruction on parenting.”

This business is so odious, we’ve lost out appetite.

First, where does Ludwig get the notion that foster care is going to get kids on a healthier path. Does he recommend that a state foster-care system employ special trainer-foster-parents who are specially certified to care for fat kids?

But of course the problems with implementing his idea isn’t the real issue. The problem is advocating for government-parenting. Obese children may not be healthy children and they may ideed face serious health issues, as Ludwig argues. But nothing about their lifestyle poses an iminent danger to themselves, their parents or the surrounding community. Parents make bad choices all the time, for themselves and their kids. That is their right and priviledge in a free society.

Using Ludwig’s argument that in extreme cases the state should take extreme measures to remove persons in danger, perhaps the state of Massachusetts should remove Dr. Ludwig from Boston’s Children’s Hospital where he works so as to protect his patients from the danger he poses, given his extremely dangerous ideas about caring for kids.